


After the Story Ends

by ludulfiantimes15



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 18:06:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12799536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ludulfiantimes15/pseuds/ludulfiantimes15
Summary: Set after the last book, Sam's feelings about staying behind in the Shire when Frodo sails in the West, sadder interpretation than actual ending. Heavily featured Sam's unrequited love for Frodo, Gimli and Legolas have to face Legolas's longing for the Sea, in a world where all the old legends have begun to fade away. Does feature Ent Wives though!





	After the Story Ends

Sam, short ring-bearer, long-rememberer had watched the boat sink away into the horizon, bearing his master and the last remnants of legends away from him, out of Middle Earth and into whatever lands lay beyond the vast grey sea. It is said of him then, that he went back home, felt the warmth of wife and children, and lived content in the Shire as one much beloved. By most accounts, it was a happy ending. Most historians had written of him that he was content to watch the last vestiges of monsters and mortals, the Last Great Quest silently slip away from him. Gandalf the Grey had gone as quietly into the night, to be heard no more. Aragorn had cast off his shadows of the past, his careworn face and brought a new light to the land, he and his now mortal wife, who would make even the passing years that bore them further and further away from times of great deeds and men seem beautiful. Galadriel, she of the morning, had gone into the West, across the Sea, and many of the elves began to taste of their longing to follow her, to leave their sun-dappled trees and softwoods behind and feel sharp seawind upon their faces, the caws of gulls wheeling in the blue skies. But Arwen, beautiful evening maiden, lulled those that remained behind, helped ease the melancholy of a new age, which had lost many of the old wonders. 

Still, how could they sing of a happy domesticity for Sam, he who had gone into the depths of fire and ashes, who had stabbed Selob and rushed orcs, all for love of his master? He was the one who had always watched Frodo’s face in love, in wonder, and fear. In dark caverns and in orc-surrounded pits, he had held Frodo, tried to warm his master, watching him grow ever more ethereal. For it seems that he always knew that Frodo would never be his, would never be ordinary, or rest easy in the unthinking bliss of the Shire. The long-ago historians wrote that, in their last farewell, Frodo had told him he would heal, become whole and one. That Frodo had known Sam was divided, torn between his wife and family, and following him, and told him to go and be happy, in the land of the living. In the legends, Sam had bent his head, and said farewell. He left, riding by the side of Merry and Pippin, who singing, left for their own home in Buckland. Theirs was an easier grief; they had their life’s companion in each other. Thus, at the end of the road, the three companions had split, and Sam returned to his wife, where the comfort of home was said to have soothed him down, dulled the pain, and made him whole. But in the end, could Sam, looking into his own cheery fire, really forget the pale, eerie beauty of his master's face, could forget the forests of the elves, the orc-whips on Frodo's back in the faces of his young children? Or on windy Shire nights, could he turn his face and go back to sleep besides pretty Rose, or would a longing seize him, to venture back into the strange unknown plains, the wild landscapes of dreams, where once again he could see Frodo's haunting eyes, and feel the phantom warmth of his feverish body.


End file.
